This invention relates to a compact semi-automatic system for applying connectors to multi-conductor flat cable, and more particularly to an improved connector transport system.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 702,992 entitled "Connector Installation Station for Compact Semi-Automatic Cable Assembly System" filed concurrently herewith and has a common assignee with the present application.
Multi-conductor flat cable, or ribbon cable, is generally made in strip form and has a plurality of conductors embedded in a suitable integral insulation such as plastic. The strip has substantially flat sides to which connectors are installed, the flat sides of the cable being relatively wide compared to the cable's adjacent edges.
The connectors used with such cables are generally provided in two parts, the body portion and the cover portion, which are placed on the opposite flat sides of the cable and installed thereto. The body and cover portions each have interior or cable-facing sides that are intended to be placed adjacent the flat sides of the ribbon cable for installation thereon.
The cable-facing side of the body portion is provided with electrical contacts such as an array of insulation displacement IDCs, each of which is intended to mechanically contact and electrically couple with individual ones of the conductors in the ribbon cable through the piercing of the insulation around the conductors as installation takes place. The cable-facing side of the cover portion may have slots, grooves or some other suitable surface configuration for receiving the cable and suitable means, such as legs, clips or other similar elements, which interact or engage with the body so that a secure mechanical attachment is made and maintained between the conductors in the cable and the contacts of the body after installation of the connector onto the cable has been completed.
The prior art contains numerous devices, both automatic and semi-automatic, for installing such connectors onto cables. For the most part, these devices load the cable-facing sides of the body and cover portions of the connector in a plane that is generally parallel to the flat sides of the ribbon cable when at the installation station. In addition, the prior art devices maintain this relationship between the cable facing side of the body and cover portions and the cable throughout the handling and movement of these parts until installation onto the connector has been completed.
The prior art design approaches have resulted in rather bulky devices or machines that take up an inordinate amount of space, such as floor space or workbench space, especially in the horizontal plane as the operator faces the machine. This lack of compactness has lead to inefficiencies in utilization of manufacturing space. This is particularly true in semi-automatic versions of such machines wherein several machines are used by several different operators for a variety of jobs in a side by side orientation on adjacent workbenches.
One such prior art device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,442 to Senior et al. The Senior et al patent discloses a device occupying a large amount of space, especially in the horizontal plane, as can be appreciated by reference to FIG. 1 of the patent. The body and cover portions are supported in magazines which are oriented horizontally, in the same plane as that of the ribbon cable at the installation station. The body and cover portions are loaded into their respective magazine so that their respective cable-facing sides are parallel to the flat cable. In addition, the cover and body portions are maintained in this horizontal orientation until they are installed onto the cable although they are otherwise moved from the magazine to the place where they are installed onto the cable.
Reference is also made to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 604,788, filed on Apr. 30, 1984, entitled "Apparatus in Process for Manufacturing Electrical Harnesses", filed in the names of Anderson and Cheh, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application. The Anderson et al application discloses a system which is relatively compact yet still fully automatic. It, nevertheless, maintains the cable-facing side of the body and cover portions of the connectors generally parallel to the flat sides of the ribbon cable at the installation station from magazine loading through installation.
Examples of less automated devices for accomplishing the same type of installations are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,455 to Roeker; U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,949 to Allen; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,083 to Johnson et al. The Roeker and Allen patents disclose devices which load and feed the cover and body portions through the installion operation while keeping the cable-facing sides thereof parallel to the flat sides of the cable at the installation stations. In addition, the device disclosed in the Roeker patent, as can be appreciated by reference to FIG. 1 of that patent, places his magazines for the body and cover portions in the horizontal plane which requires a large amount of room on the top of the workbench as the operator faces the machine.
The device of the Johnson et al patent takes a different approach to the machine configuration which does result in a somewhat more compact device than many other prior art devices. However, the Johnson et al device relies upon the partial preassembly of the cover portions to the body portions followed by the slipping of the end of the ribbon cable therebetween before installation can take place. In addition, the Johnson et al device would seem to be limited to placing electrically insulating connectors at, or quite near, the ends of the ribbon cable. The Johnson et al device also would appear to be inappropriate for installing electrically conductive connectors mid-span of a cable, particularly at a location on a cable any significant distance from the end of the cable.
A similar pre-assembly approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,225 to Johnson, Jr. et al. Here an apparatus is disclosed for pre-assembling a connector housing, which is pre-loaded with a plurality of terminals, with a respective connector cover and subsequently applying the pre-assembled connector to terminate a multi-conductor flat cable. The pre-loaded connector housings and the covers are separately fed to the apparatus by magazines. Each cover is positioned with respect to a housing and applied thereto with the assembly thereafter being rotated and moved to a termination station where a multi-conductor flat cable is terminated by the connector. The device employes a rollover member which initially receives the connector housings.
Hand-actuated tools are known which allow limited movement of one of the jaws to provide engagement of alignment guides to provide even distribution of clamping force on the connector during installation. One such hand tool which is used when applying connectors to ribbon cable is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,560 to Senior et al. Another type of hand tool for crimping connectors onto ribbon cable wherein one jaw can pivot is disclosed in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 305,317, filed on Sept. 24, 1981, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,583 issued Sept. 24, 1985 in the name of Patrick Crossin, and entitled "Compression Hand Tool", and assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
The present invention is particularly well suited for use in the overall system as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 702,756 filed concurrently herewith in the name of J. Anderson which is incorporated by reference herein.
The system disclosed in the present application is an improvement over the prior art in a number of aspects. First, the present system does not require the cable facing sides of the cover and body portions to be loaded into the machine so that they are generally parallel to the plane of the flat sides of the ribbon cable when at the installation station. The cable-facing sides can be virtually oriented in any convenient or necessary orientation when loaded into the magazines and then reoriented to their respective positions substantially parallel to the flat sides of the cable at some point between the magazines and the installation station. This feature is particularly desirable in providing a compact machine for side by side operation with other machines of the same or similar types. The present system is adapted to take up as little workbench space as possible in the horizontal plane, as the operator faces the workbench, while still providing a substantially horizontal orientation for the cable at the installation station. It also provides sufficient capacity in the magazines for the connector parts which extend generally away from the installation station in a direction other than horizontal so as not to interfere with the operation of a closely adjacent machine.
A number of additional features become apparent when reading the detailed description following hereinafter.
The present invention is so designed as to be a universal system for not only different sizes of the same type of connector. It is also easily adaptable to accommodate different types of connectors. In addition, an attendant supporting the operator can readily reload the machine with additional body and connector portions even while the machine is operating with such portions being utilized on a first in, first out basis. The alignment of the connector portions in their respective magazines is automatically accomplished during loading so that the connector portion containers or packages can be removed and replaced in the magazines by the operator. The system is designed to counteract any undesirable effects which might result from the opening and closing of the press during the installation process to thereby avoid any relative twisting of the connector parts relative to one another before installation and to provide positive mechanical control over the connector cover portion during the installation process. The system also has dual pivoting platens in the termination station so that the operator can easily and quickly align cables for mid-span or edge connector installation depending upon the configuration of the harness.